Star Wars: Fate of the Hunter
by nixdragon
Summary: Bounty hunter Kyja Lissiri tells herself that she is just trying to survive the war she's been thrown into but soon finds herself and her fight caught between the First Order and the Resistance. Eventual Poe/OC Cover pic by JanuaryLily.
1. Chapter 1

The cool blues and greys of the ocean planet moved gently, the world looked almost lonely with only one moon and one ship in its orbit. The First Order would be arriving within hours, the eyes of the galaxy turning to its neighbor Jakku—for now, there was peace.

The planet turned bright below the bounty hunter's ship but the girl refused to look up for even one heartening glimpse of the planet's serenity. Her ship set in orbit and engines silenced, she had her eyes focused in the other direction, waiting for any incoming ships. It was a backwater set of planets and the worst of the assignments-safest of the assignments-her crew had been given but the young woman, clad in her dark purple armor even in the safety of her ship, refused to let any of that move her from her watch. This was a false lead, this was boring-she was alone to think.

A low beep broke the quiet.

The young bounty hunter turned to glance around the empty cockpit, eyes flicking over the sealed door before she winced and swiveled back to watching the empty black between the stars.

"Go away, H," she called grumpily. Leaning forward, she crossed her arms atop the controls, the light of the stars playing across her dark skin and hair. The last thing she needed was her boss's stupid hunting droid. Why had he woken up anyway? He knew he wasn't needed when the ship was in stasis. There wasn't even anything for H333 to shoot. The door creaked behind her, then opened with a series of painful clunks. "Go back to sleep, you giant piece of scrap."

The beep came again, lower in tone and stern.

"Yes, I'm watching. Of course, I'm watching, kunghead." Nothing was better for her nerves than that hunk of dark red metal. Her eyes stayed locked on the sky, not daring to move an inch now that the droid was around. She stayed that way for a couple moments, the droid's sensors scanning her and then the space outside the ship to check that she hadn't missed anything. "Go back to sleep, H."

The droid squealed again and she heard him lurching up behind her. A moment later H333's hand appeared beside her head and a light began flickering in his palm. H333 made another blip and the bounty hunter glanced up at him in irritation before the hologram lit up and she brought her face back to polite boredom.

"Rosha."

"Kyja, any movement?" The tiny figure asked, her voice friendly and almost cheerful. Her face and body were covered by an armor the same shade as Kyja's. "The First Order's headed your way," Rosha continued, not giving the younger any time to respond. "But my brother heard you might get some company before them."

"Republic?" Kyja asked, lifting a hand to start her ship up for a quick exit.

The hologram of Rosha shook its head. "Resistance. Capture or take them out if you can, join the Order and report afterward. I'd like to show them we can be a bit more useful."

"Yes, ma'am."

Rosha nodded. "Good luck, Lissiri. Try not to give H too much trouble." With a laugh, she brought her blaster to her forehead in a salute, and the transmission ended.

Kyja Lissiri returned her eyes to the sky and prepared herself for a fight, trying very hard not to think about meeting the First Order.

For the first time.

All by herself.


	2. Chapter 2

Kyja's first act was to strap a visored helmet over her dark hair and check that her armor was all in place.

"H333, are all weapons online and ready?" Her voice and actions were steady for the moment. This first part wasn't the risky part. She'd caught plenty of lone travelers, plenty of criminals.

A beep from the floating droid assured her that everything on _The Sarlacc's Revenge_ was exactly where it had been when she'd checked it two hours ago. A few moments later there was a flash of light and, just as Rosha had said, a Resistance T-65 starfighter slowed from hyperspace and began its way toward Jakku.

"What a piece of junk," Kyja muttered. Her mouth twisted as she studied it a moment longer. "New engines though."

A flick of a few switches and her larger vessel lit up and lurched forward.

She kept her gunship slightly off-course, gaining on the starfighter as its pilot prepared for the descent to the dusty brown planet. Gun range was more important than getting behind him at the moment and she'd found that most people paid little attention to her ship if it wasn't directly attacking th-.

Her eyes caught on a flashing red light.

"Incoming Com?" She looked curiously at the little white vessel. She could just make out a vague impression of chipped paint and dented metal. "Why not? H, be ready to fire."

A growl of machinery replied. Kyja put on her best attempt at innocent voice as she accepted the comlink.

"You in trouble out there? Never seen a fighter out here."

There was a pause.

"Not at all. Just wondering who would be following me to Jakku of all places," A man's cheerful voice replied.

His ship was starting to speed up.

Kyja rolled her shoulders and readied for the chase.

"Jakku? Oh, I can't count the hours I've spent enjoying the views out here." On a whim, she reached over and began tracking the source of the link. Something about the confidence in that voice was making her uneasy. "What brings you out here… Sorry, didn't catch your name."

"You first, ma'am. You are the one following me after all."

"Following y-?" The starfighter suddenly veered sharply off to its right and sped skipping across the outside of Jakku's atmosphere. " _Shab_."

"That's what I thought."

Kyja swung her ship into gear and the thrill of the chase began to drum in her bones, every other distraction floating away with the fire of reentry.

"Well, you're faster than I'd hoped you be, I'll give you that."

 _Almost_ every other distraction.

Kyja's hands were glued to the controls and she didn't dare reach over to cut off the transmission. She lost a bit of distance as she angled herself to get behind the starfighter. Her eyes saw black space, distant stars and thousands of miles of dirt. And a small white ship she was just barely ready to fire on.

"Nice try." The man laughed as he swung his ship around and ducked beneath her.

Kyja slammed a button down and the jets atop the ship reversed, already chasing after the rebel before she'd finished turning the body to follow.

She heard a whistle in her ear as they both entered the atmosphere, both pilots adjusting quickly to the new friction.

"I gotta get me one of those."

"You _are_ going to need a new ship in a moment."

All she saw now was various shades of brown of a hundred sand dunes: they were headed straight down.

She didn't like that.

"H, begin firing."

"Oh, no you don't."

Just as she'd wanted, his ship straightened out and began to fly parallel to the surface. Her shots flew harmlessly down into the desert but now gravity was aiding her in gaining ground. The two ships danced over the planet, veering back and forth across the blue of the sky. She was never quite close enough to shoot, he never could quite lose her. She refused to take her eyes off of him for a second.

"Seriously, Big Guns, what's your story?" The man said. "No First Order flunkie has moves like that."

"Thanks."

Probably shouldn't have said that.

Kyja shrugged it off.

No one he could tell if he was dead.

"Maybe you should join me and become a merc." She said as she fired a shot that just missed a twisting wing. "You deserve a better fighter, don't you think?"

They were quickly approaching civilization now. Kyja called off the droid as she caught sight of ships entering and leaving the port ahead. Her eyes narrowed on the white starfighter, just a little closer and one shot would be enough to take him out.

"Thanks. But I'm alright."

Suddenly his ship ducked straight down again, flying back beneath her just as he had before.

Kyja readied to follow as he curved around to fly back… just as a ship appeared from below and cut her off from behind.

The bounty hunter dipped her ship as well, rivets groaning at the sudden drop. What she found was a maze of transports waiting for her, ten times _The Sarlacc's_ size and each heading a different direction at a different speed. He'd circled around while she'd been distracted and was headed straight for it.

"Oh, don't you dare."

"Sorry, Guns."

He was already darting between them.

Kyja hesitated.

She had him tracked. But if she gave up too quickly-

A loud and sickening crunch told her she'd waited too long. Kyja's body slammed into the side of her seat and her entire gunship tipped as a cargo vessel hit the left jet and didn't bother to stop. She could hear a shelf tipping behind her and the thuds and clanks of all her belongings spilling outlasted just a bit longer than the breath she'd taken in and held when she heard them start to fall.

There was nothing to do but hold on and wait for it to end.

So she waited.

Waited.

 _Waited_.

"You're not still listening to this, are you?" She asked with a wince.

He laughed in her ear.

The com shut off just as _The Sarlacc_ pulled free and righted itself.

Kyja leaned back in her seat and groaned as lights began flashing everywhere and H333's angry beeping began. She could see a Rodian making rude gestures at her from the gunport of the cargo ship. She winced and was suddenly very glad she'd left her helmet on for the ride.

As the cargo ship left the atmosphere, Kyja reached out and gently guided her gunship out of the traffic and down to the port. The ship landed with a painful settling of metal and something big swinging against the hull at the impact of meeting the ground.

"Send the First Order that tracking link, will you, H?" Kyja stood tiredly and slammed a button with a bit too much force for the shape _The Sarlacc's Revenge_ was in. The hull door hissed and lowered into a ramp as the woman gathered a few tools and snatched a bag from the same drawer.

She stormed outside, tossed the bag at the man waiting to collect her docking fee, and began the climb up her damaged ship.

As she worked, some alien children gathered to write down the curse words she was spitting nonstop. She ignored them except to ask one of them to toss her back a tool she'd dropped and to laugh and offer encouragement when they had to try a few times to reach her. She continued the cursing after that, but it was more for show. Kyja was thinking it over and she was pretty sure the First Order would be more pleased with a location than with a dead body.

They tended to want to do their dirty work themselves, after all.

Her family had firsthand experience with that.

…

Kyja headed out about an hour later, replying to worried messages through H333 and promising to call her father later when there was no risk of being bugged. She plotted a course to the rendezvous she'd been sent and pulled a mirror from her pocket as _The Sarlacc's Revenge_ lurched forward and headed into space. The woman's eyes searched every one of her own features, memorizing: thin nose, thin face, dark hair, dark eyes, downturned mouth. She tried a few expressions to see how they twisted her face.

She'd done it all before but… she'd never really thought she would get this far.

Belatedly, she wondered if she should have found a way to look at herself from a different angle but then the star destroyer pulled into sight and the false smile twisted into an expression of resolve. Her gunship flew forward, the bounty hunter offering the codes with ease as she was hailed and then invited in. The huge ship grew larger and larger until it loomed everywhere she looked and then she was landing and she was part of it.

 _What if_ they _recognize_ you _?_ And the helmet went back over her head. Which was silly after so many years but she didn't know yet if Hux or his men were here. Or how much the stormtroopers might be able to figure out… But then again, she wasn't here to avoid risk.

Kyja laughed at herself and soon she was marching out into the pristine docking bay, glancing up with a wry smile no one could see to study the smoke pouring from the injured jet. Men and women in full armor milled around her, a sea of inhuman masks with a few officers thrown in just to annoy her with their faces. Plan A: failed.

The merc found one of the officers approaching and nodded in greeting. Neither of them bothered with introductions and she had soon arranged for repairs, accepted payment, and was being led away from the action into one of dozens of blank looking hallways.

She was far too lost to explore, much less try to get a glimpse of every face on the ship.

Plan B: failed.

Kyja was slightly encouraged by the eyes that followed her everywhere. She overheard one or two stormtroopers commenting on the color of her armor. Still, she didn't truly mind when the officer let her into a small, blank looking apartment and she was left alone. People could lie or tell tales, after all.

Truth was easier to find on your own.

There was a small panel below the security camera she probably wasn't supposed notice. She dumped her bag beside her on a small couch and began fiddling with bits of tech until she thought she'd made enough for a decent loop and a few buttons commanded the camera-and any others nearby that she hadn't seen-to ignore the next few minutes of the room's activity.

Then she practically sprinted across the room, a small metal box tight between her hands.

The panel she'd eyed popped open easily and the wire she wanted was as easy to find as it had the hundred times she'd practiced. It took a few seconds more to tap into their information logs and soon the program she and her father had designed was scanning at a rate too fast for her eyes to follow. Kyja took a deep breath. There was nothing she could do but wait. Wait and hope that no one walked into the room.

Kyja considered this thought.

A moment later she was holding her hacking device in one hand and a very large gun in the other. If she was going to be suspicious she might as well go big.

 _Big Guns_. That was what that idiot rebel had called her. They'd probably caught him by now, a few seconds faster than they would have without her. Maybe if she failed they'd end up in the same cell. Or the same grave.

The device beeped and she abruptly stopped the scolding she was about to give herself. It took a few seconds for her to disconnect everything. By the time she was back on the couch, setting herself back into the end position of her loop, the camera had only been blind for two minutes.

Kyja took a shaky breath and slipped the precious device onto her belt. She looked around to find that the room was actually fairly nice, with a bed and a washroom off to one side. The washroom was what she wanted right now and she launched herself lightly over the back of the couch and headed over. Her helmet settled nicely under one arm and she splashed some water over her sweaty face and then her neck.

She walked casually back to the couch and then finally, _finally_ called up the list she'd downloaded from the star destroyer's data banks.

FJ-1111, FJ-1112, FJ-1113… It went on and on through the FKs, FLs, FMs, FNs, FOs, all the way to the GSs and HGs with a few CBs and DWs thrown in. And that was it.

No names...

Plan C: failed.

Kyja tossed the device into her back and her helmet quickly followed.

She lay back on the couch with the slow movements of someone who had pushed herself too hard and would now feel it for a Very. Long. Time.

Kyja covered her face with one arm and let her eyes rest.

It was fine.

It would be fine.

She just needed a new goal, that was all.

The bounty hunter considered this for a long moment, chewing her lip as she waited for some epiphany to come.

A new goal.

She had nothing. She didn't know enough.

Therefore she needed someone else.

Her stomach twisted at all the different ways for that to go wrong.

Plan D: get help.

Or, rather, Plan D: hope the people angry enough to start a resistance didn't hold a grudge.


	3. Chapter 3

Kyja woke up with a stiff back and a bruise on her side from sleeping on her favorite pistol but she managed a smile for the white mask she found above her.

"Ren wants you in the Detention Area." A man's voice told her. He held his weapon at the ready but it seemed to be the habit of a soldier, not a threat.

Kyja yawned and nodded as she sat up and reviewed her bland surroundings. "Can I leave my things here?" A short nod.

The bounty hunter stood up and followed through the dizzying hallways yet again, rubbing at her back and fully aware that she was willing to give back her earnings to go back to sleep on a decent bed. The stormtrooper marched ahead until they reached a sealed door and another trooper standing guard.

"Ren is waiting for her." Kyja's stormtrooper announced.

A nod of reply and she was waved in.

Alone.

Again.

The door sealed up again behind her and a scream followed almost immediately. Kyja found her hand on her pistol and wondered if they'd sent her here for Kylo Ren to take care of, to dispose of. If she'd missed something.

A camera caught her eye.

She slowly lowered her hand and faked a laugh.

Kyja kept a smile painted on her face and tried not to think about where she was.

"Hello?"

A menacing figure in black stepped into the hall, towering over her in yet another inhuman mask-why hadn't she brought her helmet? Everyone else here wore one. She bowed her head.

"Sir."

"The bounty hunter," Kylo Ren cocked his head to the side. "In here."

He disappeared back through the door and she only hesitated long enough to clench and unclench her fists. She followed him in to find a series of recordings running on various screens, some of a rundown desert town, some of that town destroyed, most of them of a bruised and bleeding man being interrogated. The man was who Ren called her attention to.

"I want to know if he was alone," The graveled voice commanded.

Kyja nodded, stepping forward to study the man. Was this the pilot? A small part of her hoped not as she saw a looped scene of him getting punched in the gut.

"I only heard one voice. I didn't get close enough to see inside the starfighter."

Ren waved a hand and a switch across the room flipped along with Kyja's stomach as she realized that some of the stories were true. Then she heard a familiar voice quipping at the interrogators, asking if they were sure they knew what they were doing before cutting off in a grunt of pain.

Was she about to join him? Was this a trick to get her to tell what she knew before they revealed what they knew?

But there was no fear on her face as she turned and nodded to towering presence beside her.

"That's him. That's the one I talked to." Her eyes locked on the brazen face as his mocking voice rang out again. "I can get my droid to give you the recording, but I'm not sure what you want from him. The conversation was mostly…" She gestured to the rebel as he gave a laugh. "Just talk."

"That will not be necessary."

The two of them stood considering the man. Ren looking for a breaking point, Kyja Lissiri trying to absorb that sense of resilience and slam it against her fears of ending up in that chair after they finished with the rebel.

"How did he get away?" The warrior asked suddenly.

Kyja winced, "Pulled a stunt."

"But you almost caught him?" He watched her nod and studied her for a long moment. "What is your name?"

"Kyja Lissiri, sir."

"Well. I may have need of the woman who almost caught…" He looked her up and down before continuing. "...the 'best pilot in the resistance'. Is your ship ready to fly?"

"Your men were to repair it."

"Ah, yes." Ren stepped forward and typed something into the console. "Repair should be finished by the time we know what we're looking for. Go prepare your ship for launch and await orders from General Hux."

"Yes, sir. Are these orders for me or for my crew as well?"

"You. You will be retrieving something your quarry left on Jakku."

The girl didn't feel anywhere close to the grin she plastered on her face but she raised an eyebrow in amusement anyway. "A bit of revenge? Thank you, sir."

He nodded. "You are dismissed. One of my men will lead you to your ship."

She bowed again and walked out quickly.

She'd collected her belongings and was back to her ship before her disgust wore off enough to wonder what it was that pilot might be hiding.

..

The repairs were not finished by the time she got the com ordering her to find and capture a BB unit of all things. She filled the remaining time by pulling up a holo of the planet and doing some calculations of how far that type of droid could have moved by now.

She wasn't too happy with the results.

She'd chased a droid once before, but that one had been stolen and she'd predicted what the thief would do. She wasn't sure that she could predict what something would do if it didn't need money, water, food, or shelter. The hunter also had a hunch that the pilot would have given the droid orders not to send transmissions out to the other rebels.

Just to make herself feel better, Kyja let out a curse.

A series of beeps behind her told her that H333 did not approve. With a sigh and several comments about how easy it was to recycle useless metal, Kyja fled the cockpit and began walking up and down the rows of First Order ships. Everyone ignored her and it was interesting to watch the pattern of take-off and landing that they'd established between the various types of ships and where they all had to dock.

She was playing with the idea of throwing out a few tracking pods, just to see if she could find one of their more permanent bases when she caught a flash of something that wasn't black or white. A stormtrooper escorting a prisoner, she realized and her mind dismissed it for a moment; brown wasn't that interesting of a color.

Her mind noted that there had been a bit of red against the brown.

And that the face above it had been a little familiar.

Kyja became curious and took a step back, finding that spot empty. Her eyes naturally followed up to the TIE fighters lining the wall and she idly wondered if her ship could outclass them.

She was about to turn away when she caught movement in one of the TIE cockpits. Her feet moved her closer as she tried to make sense of it.

"Lissiri?" She jumped and turned to find an officer studying his clipboard. "Your repairs are finished and you are cleared for immediate takeoff."

Kyja glanced back, lips pulled tight, at the TIE fighter and found a pair of narrowed eyes studying her between setting the controls. He was just barely visible and she was almost sure that if she claimed not to have realized who was piloting later, it would be believable. Almost believable.

But if he got back to the resistance and told them who she worked for…

Her hand went to the gun at her side and the eyes that had been watching her locked onto hers. There was a bruise around one eye. Blood matted the side of his face. That had been in the video. What more had they done to finally discover the existence of the BB unit?

What could she get from them if she gave him back?

What more would they do to him if she gave him back?

"Lissiri?"

Kyja felt her jaw tremble just a little, and then she felt her hand fall away from her weapon. She couldn't help but look at the man again and wasn't sure how she felt about the wave of relief that seemed to shudder through him. She caught a glimpse of stormtrooper armor in the seat behind him and felt sick as she fought off the temptation to move closer, to find the stormtrooper's face.

It had been a man escorting the prisoner.

There was nothing here for her.

"I'll leave right away."

"Yes, ma'am."

There was a loud growl of an engine starting followed by the groan of metal.

Kyja refused to look.

The bounty hunter walked forward as chaos erupted on each side, shaking her head and fighting a desire to roll her eyes. What was the point of wrestling with your conscience if everyone else was just going to act like an idiot?

There were several explosions as Kyja reached The Sarlacc's Revenge.

"Hey, H." Her voice was dripping with annoyance. "Ask them if they want help."

She had a brief moment of terror that the droid was about to radio the escaping prisoner and whoever his gunman was. But the droid hadn't seen what she'd walked away from.

There was a negative beep.

The young woman laughed, "Well, alright then." There were several more explosions as she typed in the coordinates of a settlement on Jakku. "Let's go, shall we?"

...

Soon after, the TIE fighter had spiraled down toward the planet as well. Fire blossomed as it fell, shattering itself.

Poe didn't wake up for a bit after and when he did he found himself alone, still strapped to the chair and its parachute. His hands struggled for the release and he gasped for breath as he fought his way out of the chair. He spun, eyes searching and finding only sand.

They would be after him soon. No way they hadn't tracked the crash. He grimaced as he stopped his pointless searching: maybe they'd already found Finn.

He had no weapon, no starfighter, no allies.

For that matter, no food or water.

Poe took a bracing breath and remembered what he could of where he'd started his descent. There should be civilization big enough to spot if he headed… that way. And if Finn had stayed conscious that was the place he would have seen first, as well.

"Here's hoping," Poe muttered to himself.

He tore off some of the ragged parachute to use as cover and then he was off, marching across the desert.

Every so often he caught sight of the same cargo vessels he'd used against the bounty hunter. He figured he was either headed in the right direction of the exact opposite-either way, he ducked against the dunes every time he heard engines.

As he rested, watching he caught sight of a smaller ship, a gunship with quite a bit of repair work down across the top of it. It was going much too fast to be searching for him. And he'd seen the bounty hunter who'd headed for that ship, the woman who'd… not helped exactly, but not stopped his escape. He'd seen the look on her face and it was not the look of someone who was First Order material.

He stood and continued forward, steps slow as he reached for a better option. One second of doubt, barely even a second, came as he failed to find any. Then he was marching on again, grinning and positive his new plan would work.

Afterall, she had offered him a job.

Why not see if she'd meant it?

...

It was hours later, the sun already on its way past the horizon as Kyja finished a long afternoon of asking questions and getting no answers. Her movements were more and more sluggish as she made her way back to the gunship, hating everything: the way her boots sunk in the sand, the way the sand sunk into her skin, the way her mind wandered back to the identity of whoever had escaped with the rebel, the way everyone around her eyed her like they wanted to rob her and then murder her and sell her corpse as food rations. She keyed in the code to her ship while rubbing one hand over her mouth and then over her neck, longing to be clean.

"This your ship?"

Kyja didn't turn around. She didn't go for her weapon. She just leaned forward and rested her head against the ship as door lowered down to let her in.

She was so tired.

"What are you doing here?" She spoke the words into the ship but then turned to see where he'd been hiding. It took a moment before what she'd taken for a pile of sand stood and began brushing off his shirt. She noted a blaster at his side and wondered where he'd found it.

"Big Guns, it is you!" He met her incredulous look with a confident grin. "Did you find my droid yet?"

"No. What are you doing here?" She stepped toward him and tried to appear menacing, blocking entrance into her ship. "What do want, rebel?"

He hesitated, trying to keep the charm stamped on his face as strength drained away. He was leaning against the ship but still had to fight to keep his knees from buckling.

"Rebel? Oh, come on, Guns." A free hand pressed to his chest to show his 'heartbreak'.

"You never told me your name," Kyja knew, she already knew that she would let him in. But she wasn't sure if he would return the favor with a laser to the back. "And you keep calling me 'Gun'."

"Guns."

"It's Kyja Lissiri. You?"

"Poe. Poe Dameron." He looked a little stunned that he hadn't been shot yet and numbly reached out to offer a hand, stumbling as he moved forward. "Nice to meet you, K-Ow. Kyja."

"Just come inside before someone sees you."

She meant to wait inside the door but she saw him eyeing the ramp uncertainly and she gave in soon after. It took a few seconds for him to understand that she was offering to be a crutch in place of the ship wall and then she had Poe's arm thrown around her neck. She glanced to the side to see if he was alright with this, if she was hurting him and found that sure enough his face was tight with pain.

"What did you say your name was again?" She knew. She just didn't want him thinking too much as she got him to the base of the ramp.

"Do all mercs have bad memories or is it just you?" He gasped out.

"You want me to remember that I should be killing you?" They were halfway there now. "That's what I thought." She added when he failed to reply.

"It's Poe."

"Yeah? How long have you been waiting out here for me, Poe?" Almost there. "Ow."

"Sorry, Kyja," His arm had pulled at her hair as he shifted his weight. "Most of today, I think. I passed out… for a bit." He laughed breathlessly.

They made the last step and she quickly closed the door, lowering the rebel to the floor.

He laughed, holding his side as she went off to fetch a medkit. "So, what are you gonna ask the Resistance for in return for their best pilot?"

"I was going to ask you for something actually," She tossed him the kit and frowned as he simply nodded. "Not surprised?"

"Bounty hunter, merc: your type don't usually fight out of loyalty," He began tending to a wound on his side and Kyja snatched up some dinner, selecting a bit of floor across the room from him and settling down to eat. "Unless I really am that charming."

"We'll see," Kyja's mouth twitched against a smile as she tore off a bit of bread to study. "Where is your friend?" She asked as a few crumbs trailed into her palm.

"The stormtrooper?" Poe stopped smiling. "I lost him in the crash. I mean, I don't know where he ended up."

It had been a bit much to hope for. She ate the rest of the bread with slow, deliberate movements as she considered it all.

"Alright, then. I'm offering a ride in exchange for any information the rebellion has on First Order training bases. How's that sound?"

"Cheap."

"Plus expenses."

"Fair."

"And some flying lessons from 'the best pilot in the Resistance'."

He laughed. "Deal."

The bounty hunter watched him as he moved stiffly and treated the rest of his injuries. She wanted to have H333 look him over but had to do some programming first to keep the droid from telling Rosha. It was going to be awkward if Rosha ordered her to turn this man in. Or if her father ordered her to turn this man in. On the other hand, if Ren or Hux ordered her to turn him in she was more and more ready to tell them to shove it-every wince Poe made brought a new question of what might have happened to her sister. What her sister might have become.

"The First Order will be a bit suspicious if I just take off running," Kyja mused out loud. She saw Poe frown as he closed the medkit and carefully lean back against a console. He was completely at her mercy. "You think they'll buy it if I say I found a lead off-planet?"

"Not if they've got a real lead. You have no idea where BB8 is?"

"No. The Order offered a reward and suddenly no one wanted to share what they knew," Kyja sighed. "Why are they after a droid?"

"Why do you want information on First Order bases?"

"Touche." Kyja struggled to her feet and found another dinner pack, walking over to squat in front of him. "You going to be alright, Poe?" She asked, studying him as he took the meal from her hands.

"Offer me a chance to fly this bad boy and I'll be dancing a jig for you in a few minutes," Poe said with a wink. The wink turned into a wince and he laughed again. "Maybe a few hours."

"Right."

Poe set the meal to one side and clapped her on the shoulder. "Worried about me, Guns?"

"Of course; I still have a lot of questions for you," Kyja shook her head as he laughed and went back to eating. She moved away to grab another bite from her own dinner and began going over the missed coms before giving up on them and pulling up her holo of Jakku again.

Night had fallen when she looked back to find Poe asleep against the wall. The First Order had called off the Jakku search for BB8 but given no details so it didn't seem worth it to wake him up.

It didn't seem worth doing anything right now, really.

Kyja stretched and let out a yawn. It was hard to keep a decent sleep schedule with all the planet-hopping she did and she wasn't sure how long ago she'd had that nap on the star destroyer.

Lazily, the bounty hunter stood and moved to the sleeping droid to make sure it wouldn't wake during the night. A few minutes more and her armor was strewn on the floor of her little room among the rest of her fallen belongings, her door was locked, and she was tucked in bed.

Things were getting interesting.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day.


End file.
